How closely do you follow RoI?

[Euchred]

For example I have a few specific building i want to updgrade based on 12h and 1 day collection time.
So do I blindly follow the best time for return on investment? In this case my movie theatres are only lvl 4 and 5 so they have the best RoI. But if I keep following this My movie theatres will be lvl 7 and lofts will be lvl 5 before i upgrade my churches and zues theatres from lvl 1.

In a nutshell I'm asking if it's smart to follow RoI to the "T"? I'm pretty sure I can afford to so by doing cheaper lengthier upgades on houses for example while my bank account gets fat.

[Dorian Gray]

I've got two lvl 5 MTs, one lvl 2 loft and one lvl 3 loft. Right now I've got an It Restaurant upgrading to lvl 7 while I save up for the second lvl 3 loft upgrade. So I guess I'm doing exactly what you're talking about. Working out well right now, don't know how much longer I'll continue this way though.

[Jessie74]

The solution is simple.

Build, upgrade and expand.

You can do all 3 at the same time. Take advantage of of it.

[Euchred]

The solution is simple.

Build, upgrade and expand.

You can do all 3 at the same time. Take advantage of of it.

Not the easiest thing to do when it costs 3.6 million to expand my hood, especially when I don't need the room.
There is also such thing as "smart" upgrades which I'm trying to grasp a concept of.

[Dorian Gray]

Not the easiest thing to do when it costs 3.6 million to expand my hood, especially when I don't need the room.
There is also such thing as "smart" upgrades which I'm trying to grasp a concept of.

Considering this thread seemed to be about upgrading exclusively, regardless of how you're choosing to build/expand, I found Jessie's post pretty pointless. No offense Jessie74.

[brutus beefcake]

There's a guide here where it was said that as you buy up buildings to always make sure to upgrade them to level 4, and in most cases that would equal or better the initial income of higher level buildings.

Even though I read through each and every one of them, I try not to get way too into the guides so the game doesn't feel like homework, but yeah I do pay attention to that some as I upgrade.

I go about it like Dorian Gray does. I take something like an ice cream shop, and the higher I upgrade it, the more time I have to save for a bigger upgrade like a loft or movie theater etc. so I alternate between the two. When the ice cream shops are finished, I would move on to another lower level building and alternate again with a higher level one. That way there's always an income increase at all times and I can see some fairly big jumps on a regular basis.

[Max Power]

I go for the obvious targets first. My Lofts are at 3 and my movie theaters are 4 or 5, I cant remember. But I don't follow it religiously. It's just a game without an expiration date or finish line. At the end of the day, you will quit playing when you get bored, and I was entertained upgrading my Anchor Imports and Internet Companies as well. Collecting $185,000 at a time from the Anchor just feels good.

[Tramp Stamp]

I'm closely tracking ROI and periodically reporting back results in the algorithm thread.

[Nugget]

I think ROI is overrated. It is helpful from a business standpoint when talking about an individual building. But you want to look at all your building as a whole. I am more concerned with how much I can collect in a day from all my buildings. 3 hour collection buildings I can collect 6 times, 12 hours building 2 times, etc. So for all building I can collect $400,000 per day, I don't really care about what percentage of that goes towards my ROI on a particular building. I just know that my total collection is increasing, and I invest that back into more upgrades, to exponentially increase the daily collection.

[nmsueagle]

I have a different approach to determining which building to upgrade. Like Nugget, I don't really care about ROI, I just want to increase my income/hr as fast as possible. That being the plan, I look at every upgrade available, how much it will increase my income/hr, and how long it will take. Then I calculate the increase in income per hour per hour.

For example, I have a level 7 italian restaurant and a level 4 tattoo parlor. The ROI on upgrading the tattoo parlor is 80hrs vs. 317.5 on the italian restaurant, but the income/hr increase for the italian restaurant is 513 in 74hrs upgrade time (6.95/hr) vs an increase of 44 for the tattoo parlor in 9hrs (4.86/hr). So the italian restaurant will increase my income/hr faster than the tattoo parlor.

Just my strategy. I'm playing super slow. Currently at level 3. 27 fights won to 1 lost and $14990/hr. My first loft finishes building in about 3hrs and I have the money saved to start a second right away.

[procsyzarc]

Upgrade your big money building first regardless of how much it cost you, that way I get more per point of stamina robbing you and can share the love more and rob more people

[Max Power]

Wow, I never thought I would see the day when I would see lofts at level three. Before this forum, I think the first lofts were built at about level 50.

[nmsueagle]

good luck robbing me procsyzarc. I'm level 3..... I doubt anyone that can see me in their enemy list can handle my 376 defense.

[Popeye The Sailor Man]

Well there was 1 person that could handle it lol

[Tramp Stamp]

I just want to increase my income/hr as fast as possible. That being the plan, I look at every upgrade available, how much it will increase my income/hr, and how long it will take. Then I calculate the increase in income per hour per hour.

This is a perfectly valid strategy and is still ROI tracking, but instead of focusing on the break-even point you're focusing on the steady-state returns. The hidden cost of zealously tracking $/hr is a kind of "reverse compounding" where your opportunity costs, which the game does not reveal to you, are stacking up faster than your income gains. However, given enough time, the player who sought high-ticket upgrades first will probably end up with the most cash at the end, though "the end" may be over a period of years or even a decade.